Judge refuses to block gay marriages

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS — A federal judge Thursday rejected a last-minute bid by conservative groups to block the nation's first state-sanctioned gay marriages from taking place Monday.

U.S. District Judge Joseph Tauro said the state's high court acted within its authority in interpreting the state constitution.

The plaintiffs announced they would take their case to the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals--and to the Supreme Court if necessary. The 1st Circuit Court agreed to review the case on an expedited basis.

Tauro heard arguments Wednesday on a petition sprearheaded by the Florida-based Liberty Counsel and joined by the Catholic Action League, 11 state lawmakers and conservative legal groups in Boston, Michigan and Mississippi.

Granting a stay of the Supreme Judicial Court's ruling "would be to deprive that court of its authority and obligation to consider and resolve, with finality, Massachusetts constitutional issues," Tauro wrote.

That court "has the authority to interpret, and reinterpret, if necessary, the term marriage as it appears in the Massachusetts Constitution," Tauro wrote.

Mathew Staver, president and general counsel of the Liberty Counsel, had argued that the state's high court overstepped its bounds when it ruled in November that gay marriage should be legal in Massachusetts.

A state attorney arguing on behalf of the Supreme Judicial Court said the court based its 4-3 decision on the state constitution and that the case did not belong in federal court.

"If that goes into effect it will cause social unrest and the explosion of litigation throughout the United States," Staver said Thursday after the ruling was released. "This shows how four individuals can affect the entire country."